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New Albion Online dev video details classless system
In Albion Online, you are what you wear, and a new developer video delves into exactly how that works. The multi-platform fantasy game touts a classless system in which players' equipped gear determines their role, putting the power to create traditional roles or experiment with new ones in the hands of the players themselves. And the number of possible armor and weapon combinations is limited only by the number of items in the game. The type of equipment is not the only form of customization in this system, either. Player-crafted spells are added to each piece of gear, further personalizing the individual items that make up each player-concocted set. Check out an early demonstration of the spellcrafting and hear more about the classless system in the video below. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
The Secret World designers talk progression, hand-holding, and more
The Secret World is up for discussion at Rock, Paper Shotgun this morning, and Funcom designers Joel Bylos and Martin Bruusgaard spend quite a bit of time going over various details of the upcoming horror-conspiracy MMORPG. Those of you wondering how the game's classless skill-based advancement system is going to work will definitely want to read through the piece, as there is a lot of information in terms of both how the The Secret World feels and how it directs players in comparison to more traditional themepark titles. "I believe World of Warcraft uses a very heavy hand to guide players. It says, 'pick up this stuff here, go and do these missions in this place here, do all the quests then go to this place here and do the quests there,'" Bylos explains. "In our game, we try not to be as heavy handed. It's much more of a light touch and comes through in the places you visit and the people you meet."
New Secret World trailer focuses on factions, PvP
The hype machine for The Secret World is swinging into high gear following the recent announcement of the conspiracy-laden MMORPG's spring 2012 launch date. The latest reveal is a brand-new trailer that focuses on the game's PvP elements. The first third of the two-minute clip is a bit of a recap for those of you who haven't kept up with the game to this point. There's a hidden world, take the red pill, dark days are coming, etc. The final two thirds of the clip features some new looks at PvP footage as well as more glimpses of the game's gorgeous visual palette. We also get a brief rundown on the three warring factions, and the Dragons, Templars, and Illuminati all come across as worthy adversaries in terms of both style and substance. Check out all the details and make your choice after the cut.
The Daily Grind: Do you like classed or classless systems?
Class-based systems have dominated MMOs for years, but it wasn't always the case. Ultima Online, the granddaddy of the graphical MMO, had an open system wherein players could advance in whatever field they chose. It was EverQuest that first introduced a rigid class system, and arguably World of Warcraft that made it the golden standard. And it's a kind of silly standard, resulting in class-based games like RIFT trying to be as freeform as possible while freeform games like Champions Online offer class-like archetypes. It's as if one side always wants to be like the other without sacrificing its identity. A classless system gives characters far more freedom of progression, but it also creates degenerate environments where everyone takes the few useful skills and the rest go unattended. Class systems, on the other hand, promote a strong sense of homogenization wherein everyone of the same level has the same abilities, often with only tiny variations. So what game has the best implementation of this back-and-forth? Do you like a class-based game that has a very open skill tree, or a classless system with a wide variety of useful skills, or a game which hews closer to the core of either concept? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Wasteland Diaries: Building character
When making a character in Fallen Earth, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While I still have three of my four respec injectors, newly created characters will not get a respec. So it is very important to determine what you want your character to be before you start spending AP. Fallen Earth is a "classless" system, but most builds are differentiated mainly by their choice of weapon mastery, and these could be construed as the three classes. While choice of weapon type will be the cornerstone of the build, there are still a great many questions you will want to have answers to before you start to improve your stats. But your first consideration should be what type of character you want to play. You will want one that suits your playstyle, but isn't completely gimped. My goal with this post will be to help make sure you have a plan before you start your build. Even though you can probably just assign AP at random and still make a viable (at least for PvE) build, you probably want your character to be the best that he or she can be, right? Now, I am not a character-building expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have some experience with it. After the cut, I'll give you the tools and knowledge you need to build a solid PvE or PvP character. You will need to make the tough decisions yourself.
Next Team Fortress 2 update to be completely classless
No, the next major update for Valve's oft-expanded FPS Team Fortress 2 won't be without elegance and social graces -- they adequately covered that base with the Sniper update's piping hot jars of urine. Rather, the update won't favor any particular class over another, distributing goodies to every class, and adding new maps into the ever-growing mix.The first of these non-class specific additions is -- brace yourself -- new hats. Eighteen new hats, to be precise, which presumably add two new hats to each of the game's nine classes' wardrobes. (Math'd!) The first map to be revealed is Arena Offblast, a tricky little battleground perched atop a shear mountain cliff. Players will need to stay wary of the cliff's edges, lest they plummet to their death, and stain their lovely new hats with gray matter.Stay tuned to the TF2 blog -- they should be adding more information about the classless update in the coming days.
